Session II

Thursday 15 August, 18:00 SAST
Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study
With Congolese-born, Johannesburg-based poet Sarah Lubala
Hosted by Maneo Mohale

A Burial Hymn
Sarah Lubala

I

Bring the bitter leaf
the wild spinach
the kola nuts

I am gathering from scratch
telling the stone house
the thatch roof
the gun too large
for hands so small
the months of rice and
honey

II

Oh Lord
that I belonged
to any land but this
that I could not read
the currents
that the dirt roads knew nothing
of me

In these lines
I have tried to forget the words
by which we are known

III

I am told my poems
hold too much water
are charged with too much
weeping
I know nothing else
honeyed water for the mouth
lemon water for the throat
saltwater for the wounds

history is the dog at my back
hard by the heels
the profane stain of red earth
along the hem of every skirt

IV

The night my grandfather died
I stood in a long line at Home Affairs
awaiting a new name

forgive me

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link to the poem on the Johannesburg Review of Books